"Chuck Green resigned"<BR> Posted by jameson on May-12-02 at 09:06 PM (EST)<BR> <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0";>http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0<;/a>,1413,36%7E53%7E606449%7E,00.html <P> Columnist Green<BR> resigns from Post <BR> Loved, reviled writer ends 34-year<BR> tenure <BR> By Dave Curtin<BR> Denver Post Staff Writer<BR> Sunday, May 12, 2002 - Denver Post columnist<BR> Chuck Green, who took pride in being both loved and<BR> reviled by his readers, resigned Friday after a 34-year<BR> career at The Post that included stints as<BR> editor-in-chief and editorial-page editor. <P> Green, 55, delivered The Post door-to-door as a<BR> 9-year-old growing up in Longmont and worked as a<BR> part-time reporter in high school and college - an<BR> affiliation with The Post that dates back 46 years.<P> He wrote 800 columns that generated tens of<BR> thousands of e-mails and letters over his career.<P> He declined to say why he resigned and said he has<BR> no immediate plans.<P> "I may do something outside of journalism I don't<BR> even know about yet," Green said. "But I won't leave<BR> Colorado."<P> "He said it was time for him to go on and do<BR> something else," said Larry Burrough, The Post's<BR> managing editor for news.<P> "Writing a metro column is one of the toughest jobs in<BR> the world and can be very wearing on even the best<BR> people, and he's been doing it for a long time," he<BR> said. "He's without a doubt one of the best-known<BR> characters in the state not only for his work at The<BR> Post but for his charity work."<P> Green's charitable work ranges from assistance to<BR> children born blind to the care of the elderly in<BR> hospices.<P> He's best known as a champion of animal welfare and<BR> an assailant of animal cruelty - the subjects of<BR> columns that deeply touched his readers.<P> "Columns that brought the most response were<BR> personalized columns about life, the death of my dog,<BR> personal reflections of childhood and my<BR> mother-in-law's collection of 700 cookbooks," Green<BR> said. "I called her "The Kitchen Witch' because she<BR> was out to kill me with her 1950s-style home cooking.<BR> We're still good friends."<P> Green received hundreds of requests for reprints of<BR> that column, which was reprinted around the world.<P> Green's general-interest commentary has appeared in<BR> The Post four times a week since 1995. He also wrote<BR> a column as editorial-page editor for five years,<BR> including a series of 50 weekly columns that profiled a<BR> different homeless person every week.<P> "Our surveys always showed Chuck as the best-read<BR> columnist in Colorado," Post editor Glenn Guzzo said.<BR> "He'll leave behind a loyal following, and we'll miss<BR> him very much."<P> Green supervised coverage of the fatal 1976 Big<BR> Thompson flood - a job that found him sleeping in the<BR> newsroom for three nights - and of the 1982<BR> Christmas Eve blizzard, which was never published<BR> because the paper couldn't be delivered - the biggest<BR> disappointment of his career, he said.<P> His columns in 1995 on Keko and Snowy, dogs<BR> poisoned by a neighbor, by themselves generated<BR> thousands of letters and e-mails. As a result, the<BR> Snowy and Keko Fund was created, and readers<BR> contributed $40,000 for animal welfare.<P> "We gave it to the Dumb Friends League, and we<BR> bought a police officer a dog after his police dog was<BR> killed," Green said.<P> He also championed the Harrison Memorial Animal<BR> Hospital and the MaxFund, a nonprofit animal adoption<BR> organization.<P> Green occasionally came to work with his keeshond<BR> dog Gus and later with Auggie. His column on the<BR> death of Gus also generated letters in the thousands.<BR> He brought his small parrot, Reggie, to work nearly<BR> every day when he was editorial-page editor from<BR> 1983 to 1988.<P> "There was a branch on the bookshelf that was his<BR> perch. I called it his branch office," Green said. "He<BR> met presidential candidates, five-star generals,<BR> ambassadors and a congresswoman."<P> Reggie rode in Bill Clinton's limo as Green interviewed<BR> him during a pre-speech drive from Stapleton Airport<BR> to Civic Center on the eve of Clinton's first election.<P> "Clinton and the Secret Service didn't know it, but<BR> Reggie was in my pocket," Green said.<P> Not all the responses to his columns were positive.<P> Green said he received death threats from people who<BR> despised him for writing about what he termed an<BR> overreaction to the death of the Grateful Dead's Jerry<BR> Garcia. Green called him a deadbeat dad and a<BR> druggie.<P> Patricia Calhoun, editor of the alternative weekly<BR> newspaper Westword, said Green hadn't been<BR> sounding like himself lately.<P> "His column didn't read like his heart was in it,"<BR> Calhoun said. "His column read like he was tired. He<BR> has got a long history at The Denver Post, so it is<BR> definitely the end of an era."<P> Green led The Post newsroom when it made the<BR> transition from Linotype to computers in the 1970s and<BR> when it switched from evening to morning delivery in<BR> the early 1980s. He designed The Post newsroom after<BR> it moved from its longtime locale at 15th and<BR> California streets to its current location at 1560<BR> Broadway. He's listed as a contributor to The Post's<BR> 1986 Pulitzer Prize for public service.<P> He served as a network TV consultant on the region's<BR> biggest stories: Jon Benet Ramsey, Timothy McVeigh<BR> and the Columbine High School massacre. He<BR> supervised coverage of tornadoes, political scandals,<BR> airliner crashes, ski-lift fatalities and the terms of five<BR> governors as he worked in nearly every Post<BR> management position.<P> "Chuck is a legend in Colorado journalism," said<BR> Denver Post publisher Dean Singleton, who struck up<BR> an enduring friendship with Green six years before he<BR> bought the paper in 1987. "He's contributed<BR> immensely to both journalism and The Denver Post.<P> "I'm very disappointed that he decided to resign. He's<BR> a close, personal friend, and I look forward to a<BR> continued friendship."<P> Former Post reporter Fred Brown, who met Green<BR> when Green was a copy boy 35 years ago, called his<BR> colleague a committed journalist who was "not at all<BR> shy about stirring up controversy. He succeeded in<BR> doing that," Brown said. "Chuck's history has been<BR> some of the most colorful in modern Denver<BR> journalism."<P> Denver Post staff writer Karen Rouse contributed to<BR> this report <BR>